Colonial Australian John Lang lived a life of dramatic highs and lows, and he may have been the first Australian novelist. He is celebrated in India, but still largely unknown on our shores.
In 1836, a two-volume novel was published in London which may have a momentous place in Australian history.
Lang's life, from his early years in Sydney, to living in the heart of the British Empire in London, then gaining national prominence in India, featured a long list of firsts. "He went to the best school in the city — Sydney College — and he excelled. He showed a great facility for languages, especially Latin," Doyle says.
Some characters in the book are very similar to figures from Lang's life, including the male protagonist D'Arcy, who has strong echoes of the powerful colonial identity William Wentworth, a lawyer, writer and political leader."There were concerns from the publisher, perhaps from Lang himself too, that the portrait of D'Arcy, which was not particularly flattering, was a little too close to the real-life Wentworth," Doyle says.
In 1837, Lang moved to the UK to read law at Cambridge. He was among the first from New South Wales to do so. But he was soon kicked out. There were 800 men present and Lang was one of only four set to speak. When it was his turn, he launched into a bizarre oration about the shortcomings of colonial representation — the topic of the meeting — and personally mocked high-profile emancipists. His outburst made the newspapers.
He became a successful barrister. His most famous case was defending Rani Lakshmibai — the rani, or queen, of the princely state of Jhansi and well-known Indian freedom fighter — in court against the British East India Company. And one thing that set Lang apart from other writers of the time was how he portrayed the Australian bush.
Violet Or The Danseuse Violet Colonial Australia Sean Doyle John Harris Publishing First William Wentworth British India Rani Lakshmibai Narendra Modi Tony Abbot Legends Of Australia Fisher's Ghost The Forger's Wife Late Night Live
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